Blueprint for a Battlestar: Serious Scientific Explanations Behind Sci-Fi's Greatest Inventions

by Rod Pyle

Overview

Through stunning images, including 75 illustrations created exclusively for this book, 25 remarkable and memorable technologies from the world of sci-fi are explored.
With expertly written text by NASA insider Rod Pyle, each concept is explained and dissected to reveal the real science behind it. Some are temptingly within our reach—such as cyborgs and artificial intelligence—others are further off, but fast approaching reality (think bio-ports or cloaking devices). All are fascinating and make wonderful explorations into the science of the future as we understand it today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781454921349
Publisher:	Sterling
Publication date:	10/11/2016
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	7.60(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Rod Pyle is a NASA and JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) insider, as well as being a writer and documentary filmmaker. He has written for numerous science and science fiction publications, including Astronautics Notebook, Foundation Journal, Starlog, and DreamWatch. He has written several books, including Destination Moon (Smithsonian Books), Innovation the NASA Way (McGraw-Hill), Missions to the Moon (Sterling), and Curiosity: An Inside Look at the Mars Rover Mission and the People Who Made it Happen (Prometheus Books). He has also worked as a visual effects coordinator for Star Trek: Deep Space 9.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Death From Above Building a Death Planet 10

Chapter 2 The Ultimate Weapon Making a Death Ray 16

Chapter 3 Shields Up! Creating a Forcefield 24

Chapter 4 Swords of Heat Using Light Swords 32

Chapter 5 Judgment Day The Rise of AI 36

Chapter 6 Stun, Kill, or Disintegrate Ray Guns and Rocket Rifles 42

Chapter 7 Rocket Science How to Fly a Jet Pack 52

Chapter 8 Wormholes Traveling Faster-than-Light 58

Chapter 9 Space-Aged Wagon Trains Traveling by Starship 66

Chapter 10 They Don't Work on Water Real-Life Hoverboards 74

Chapter 11 Are We There Yet? The Flying Car 78

Chapter 12 Living in Space How to Build a Space Colony 84

Chapter 13 What's Next? Conquering Mars 90

Chapter 14 More Than Human Living with Fembots 100

Chapter 15 Atomic Manufacturing The Nanotech Revolution 106

Chapter 16 Man or Machine? Terminator-Style Cyborgs 112

Chapter 17 My Pet T-Rex How Jurassic Park Got it Wrong 122

Chapter 18 Hands-Free Interfaces in an Iron Han World 128

Chapter 19 Auto-Diagnosis Tricorders Beyond Star Trek 134

Chapter 20 Eco-Engineering The Science of Terraforming 142

Chapter 21 Plugging in Bio-ports and Cranial Interfaces 152

Chapter 22 Who's Out There? Searching for Extraterrestrial Life 158

Chapter 23 Stopped Cold Becoming Immortal 166

Chapter 24 Disappearing Act Achieving Invisibility 174

Chapter 25 Building Tomorrow The Cities of the Future 182